


The Baths

by Rebellion_Bear



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Aliens are super closeted, F/F, Kara has powers but isn't supergirl, Kara never found Clark, Lena Kara centric, Most of the characters above are minor, Non-Human Genitalia, Strangers to Lovers, Superman doesn't exist, gay bathhouse AU
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-16
Updated: 2020-01-16
Packaged: 2021-02-27 10:14:03
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,634
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22275403
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rebellion_Bear/pseuds/Rebellion_Bear
Summary: Lena lives in Metropolis and works in the labs at her dad's company. She learns that aliens are real and goes to the alien bathhouse.orWhat if Kara landed on earth before most humans knew that aliens were real.This is darker than you usually see Kara depicted. It’s a different era. A 1970s queer bathhouse AU.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Lena Luthor
Comments: 80
Kudos: 541





	The Baths

**Author's Note:**

> This story is flavored with the grime and sleaze of the actual ’70s, but I refrained from making it too real. The bathhouse is much nicer than a real ’70s bathhouse, but some of the details are authentic. Cis het men were super gross, sexist, and mysoginistic in that decade, and I allude to it, but didn’t make that part of the story. Aliens are much more respectful. CW: hunger and detailed eating
> 
> Please read the tags.

Lena changed out of her work clothes in the locker room by the labs. Her heart was pounding in nervous anticipation as she slipped her slacks down over her hips and folded them neatly on the shelf. She’d gone shopping at a couple thrift stores in the village and picked up what she would need. Jeans, a simple button-up blouse, a used Army jacket, some ankle boots, and her favorite, a light brown suede purse with fringe. It had a stain on the back, but that just added to the look. She kept her Tag Heuer Monaco watch on. Her mother hated when she wore the large men’s watch, so she wore it a lot.

She let down her bun, combed her hair and parted it just to the right of the middle, hoping it would straighten out a bit more on the way there. 

She was in her second year in research and development at her father’s company, Luthor Corp, and while he and her brother smoked their cigars and drank scotch in the upper corner offices alongside other pompous men with greasy laughs, she was working with some of the best scientists in the country. And she had learned some things. 

She learned that aliens were real and had been living on this planet for a while, and she learned that there was a small population of them right here in Metropolis. They were people, just like her, but with exceptional experiences she could only begin to fathom. And closeted. Really closeted, more than the emerging queer community. As dangerous as it was to be out and gay, she could only imagine what might happen to an alien who was discovered.

She learned there was a bathhouse where aliens could go and be themselves, be away from human norms and hangups, where they didn’t have to hide.

Once she had learned that, other than when she was at work focused on bioengineering advances that Luthor Corp could turn into profit, she could think of little else.

One of the other researchers had told her and Jess about it over lunch. Gayle Marsh was brilliant … different … she had a way of getting into your head, and she certainly had gotten into Lena’s. It was a private club, and humans were allowed inside, but you had to purchase a membership. And someone already in the club had to vouch for you. Lena and Jess had speculated about whether it would be the same kind of meat market that discos and clubs were, full of guys acting like they were hot shit and entitled to whatever they want. They joked about going someday to check it out, and Lena had let it go at that. But she couldn’t stop thinking about it. 

She knew what it was like to have to hide, to have to blend in. She hid from her family, and she hid from the people who hated her family. There was an allure to a place where she could go and be anonymous, be free of who she was and from her last name, and be herself, not the stiff, emotionless, untouchable CEO’s daughter. And maybe meet someone from another planet. 

One day after work she followed Gayle out of the building and asked if she could get her in. 

It was one o’clock and Lena had her whole afternoon cleared. She took the back stairs to the loading dock and stepped out into the alley, putting on a large pair of sunglasses. The winter sun was harsh and the day was mild. She wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans, dug her hands into her jacket pockets, put her head down and headed for the subway.  
______

After changing into nothing but a towel and a pair of bath slippers on her feet, Lena handed the wire basket with her street clothes and purse back to the short woman with olive skin and dark wavy hair.

“Leave the glasses.”

“What?” Lena asked, touching the heavy black frames with her fingertips. She’d hoped they would help her not be as recognizable. She wasn’t a celebrity by any means, but her family’s extravagant social events had put her in the tabloids more than a few times. 

“They’ll just steam up. Leave ’em,” the woman said and gave the basket a little shake on the counter. Reluctantly Lena took them off and tucked them into a fold of her clothes. “If you need anything out of here just show your number and whoever’s here will pull the basket for you. Got it?”

Lena nodded in response, nervously adjusting the tin disk with a room number stamped on it along with a key on a thin chain looped just above her elbow. The woman had been efficient in signing Lena up with her membership and showing her the locker room. She cross-referenced a log book under the counter when Lena gave her Gayle’s name as her reference. She’d looked mildly interested at that but not much more.

But now the woman grinned at her knowingly, dimples forming in her cheeks. When she’d asked Lena if she wanted to rent a room, a yes had just slipped out, as if Lena knew what the hell she was doing or what a room was in a bathhouse. That’s when the woman explained the rules and the layout of the building, where to find her room. She explained that if someone left their door open it meant it was ok to look or watch. Draping a towel on the knob was an invitation to join.

“Great. Enjoy your visit,” she said and winked. She put the basket on a shelf with others like it and returned to the small office space behind a half-open door.

Lena’s feet felt glued to the floor, and not just because the floor in the lobby area was sticky from tracked-in street grime. 

This was it. She was here. She was in a fucking towel. And through the door on her right and down a narrow hallway she could see a larger room filled with sunlight and figures moving about, dusky shadows through a steamed up glass pane reinforced with wire.

She put her hand on the cool metal door knob and twisted, opening it and stepping into a blanket of wet heat. She noted the rubber mat lining the hall floor, something to take the grime off the soles of the slippers as patrons made the short walk to the bright pool room with its ceiling of skylights. A pleasant steam entered her nose and soothed it in a way she hadn’t realized she needed.

Walking into the pool room, she saw a few patrons turn their heads to see who had come in, but most didn’t. Some were bipeds, some not. Many relaxed in various pools or reclined on marble or wooden benches, eyes closed. It was fairly quiet except for the splash of a fountain and the sounds of people moving through water. No one else wore a towel covering themselves from chest to thigh like she did. Most were either completely naked with their towel over a shoulder or serving as a pillow or something to sit on, or they simply had it tied around their waist.

She looked around the room for a spot where she could observe for a little while unnoticed. She made her way to the least occupied pool where just one patron, who looked mostly human except for the neck gills and a collapsed fin down the back of their head, reclined. She knelt and gently dipped her fingertips in the water, finding it quite cool. The patron, as if feeling even that minor disturbance in the water opened their eyes and looked at her, giving a small smile and a quick glance at her cleavage then closing their eyes again. 

Lena stood and walked over to the curved outer wall of the circular room. Others stood around in various spots leaning against it, and she did the same, immediately feeling the heat radiating from the stone. It was wonderful. She wondered if it was electric or heated oil, or perhaps hot water or steam traveled through pipes inside the walls. Her tense shoulders relaxed with the warmth. Normally she barely paid attention to how much stress she carried from hunching over microscopes and notebooks. But feeling this heat seep through to her bones unraveled layers of soreness and stress. She pressed her spine to the wall and a small moan rose in her chest unintended.

She stiffened and opened her eyes, looking around to see if anyone had heard. If they had, no one cared. She relaxed again against the wall and observed the others in the room.

In the central pool a woman with red hair floated face up, her arms stretched out along the rim, as the rest of its occupants were loosely scattered on the other side, giving her a wide zone to herself. The water immediately around her bubbled like a cauldron. Another woman with reddish brown hair cut short walked up behind her with a clipboard. The woman stood out because she was wearing a tank top and shorts, so presumably an employee. She tapped the pool woman on her shoulder with the clipboard. Her words carried across the room.

“Be careful with that. Anyone gets burned, you’re getting banned for a month,” she warned.

“Like I give a fuck,” the woman answered, glaring at being disturbed. The other woman just walked away to continue her patrol of the facilities. 

The perimeter of the pool room had a half dozen or so doors, some open, some not. Lena decided to walk around and try to get a glimpse of what was inside. The front desk person had said there were massage rooms, and Lena thought that might be a good way to pass a little time and get a little more comfortable in the surroundings. 

Lena kept her chin down, sneaking short glances as she walked around the perimeter. The first door she passed opened to a small gymnasium. Inside a being who looked perfectly human, literally perfection of the human form, held what appeared to be a thick steel bar in his hands. She stopped to watch his theatrics as he clanked the bar against a weight rack. He handed to another man who tested its weight in his grip and nodded at the others before handing it back. Then the first man proceeded to bend with his bare hands, much to the amusement and admiration of the men and other beings gathered around him. The perfect man puffed up his chest at the attention. Lena moved on. 

The next two doors were closed, but the one after that held a massage table. Lena first noticed the masseuse and her sinewy muscles. She leaned in hard, pressing into muscle with palm and elbow, using her full weight. And then Lena looked at the patron on the table and couldn’t tear her eyes away. Oiled and naked, face down with their feet closest to the door, lay someone who appeared to be a human woman with exceptional musculature, tanned skin with no lighter patches to indicate swimsuit use or cover-ups of any kind, and dark wet hair.

Lena was standing there telling herself to stop staring and move on when the masseuse clapped the woman on the ass to indicate she was done. The woman sat up in a single lithe movement that seem to defy gravity. Lena’s gaze lingered over defined biceps and deltoids and then to the woman’s face as she turned to Lena, as if she knew she was being watched. 

Their eyes met and Lena could feel additional heat rising up her neck at being caught. The other woman’s eyes were an unreal blue with a shining clarity that was mesmerizing. 

“Pretty,” the woman said, staring at Lena with a feral grin tugging at her lips. 

Lena quickly ducked her head, turning her gaze to the floor and shuffling a dozen steps away from the door and out of sight. She leaned her back against the wall and pressed her face into her hands. Maybe she could go upstairs to find her rented room and hide there until everyone else went home. Except the baths were open 24 hours a day and there was no way to know when anyone came or went. Maybe she should just go home. It was obvious she didn’t belong here. She felt like a gawking tourist and shame burned in her gut.

She inhaled the calming steam until she felt a presence near her. No. Please let it not be … No no no nononono. She let her hands drop and lifted her face, opening her eyes as she did. 

There stood the woman from the massage table, looking like a goddess with wet ringlets of hair framing her face and wearing just a towel draped around her waist. 

“Hi,” she said softly as if Lena might bolt for the door. 

Lena was definitely tempted to bolt. She could feel the sweat dripping down her temples and cheeks, beading up on her arms and trickling from the small of her back, down her ass and between her thighs. She was unbelievably aware of the towel she was wearing and the limited amount of her body that it covered. She knew she should say something but her brain refused to put any words to her lips.

“You like what you see, human?” the goddess asked, and she leaned a hand on the wall next to Lena’s head, essentially looming over her, using her height to intimidate or seduce, Lena wasn’t sure at all what the alien’s intentions were. Lena glanced over and noticed that even the wisps of unshaven armpit hair right at her eye level seemed golden and perfect.

She had to be an alien. No human could look that good. Lena stared into those astounding blue eyes, trying to think of a response. If it were anyone else doing this, posturing so dominantly, Lena would be bristling and ready for a fight. Ready to tear down an ego with an icy glare and rapier insult. 

There was something, though, about this woman that made her pulse race, and not with fear. 

“You’re new,” the woman stated. “Did you come to play?” she asked, cocking her head to look purposefully down at Lena’s room key number and back to gazing into her eyes.

“No,” Lena said, finally able to speak. “I mean yes.”

The woman grinned and her eyes seemed to twinkle at that. “I’m Kara. You wanna feed me, Pretty?” she asked, tilting her head and leaning even closer into Lena’s personal space. Lena looked down between them but when she saw the woman’s … Kara’s … nipples nearly brushing her own skin just above the towel she jerked her eyes back up.

“What?” Lena asked, confused about what Kara meant. Lena was used to euphemisms. Used to the girls at parties where her mother wanted her to be seen. You’re young and beautiful and rich, Lena. Do something for the family for once and go be photographed with Warhol and Beatty. Though she did go to a hotel with gravelly voiced singer and had a very good time once, mostly it was girls pretending to be her friends and Lena buying endless lines of coke to get them to leave her alone. That wasn’t what she was here for.

“Not whatever you’re thinking,” the alien woman said, reading her expression perfectly somehow. “Cmon.” She took Lena’s hand in her own then turned it over and looked at Lena’s palm. “Soft,” she said. Then she tugged her to follow her back toward the lobby. “Let’s go get your purse, baby.”

The clipboard woman happened to be standing nearby, and Lena heard her clear her throat. Kara looked over with a mischievous grin. “Kara,” the woman said sternly.

“What?” Kara replied, “I’ll be good, Alex. Pretty’s just gonna buy me lunch.” 

Alex with the clipboard scowled but didn’t say anything else. 

Lena followed the alien goddess back to the lobby. 

“Maggie,” Kara called when they reached the desk. Lena could clearly see the woman through the crack of the partially open office door watching a soap opera on a small black-and-white television. When she didn’t rise, Kara got louder and more insistent. “Maggie, Maggie, Maaah-geeee, MAGGIE MAGGIE MAGGIE.” She didn’t stop until the woman got up and came through the door. 

“God, shut up. What do you want?” the woman asked.

Kara took the chain at Lena’s elbow and jangled it up and down. “Basket 14, please.”

Maggie didn’t move. She looked to Lena. Waiting.

“Basket 14, please,” Lena said with more confidence than she felt. Maggie complied then, and it only took a moment for Lena to slip her wallet from the fringed purse and hand the basket back.

The oiled woman walked back into the baths with a comfortable ease, confident Lena would follow, through the cavernous pool room and into a winding hallway. Eventually they reached a steel door that she pushed open easily, though it let out a screeching creak that indicated it had been misused more than once. 

Lena saw that it opened to a concrete back lot with a high wooden fence separating it from the alley. Garbage cans stood in one corner. There was a sliding metal gate big enough to drive a small truck through if it could open, though in its dented state she wasn’t sure it could. There were a couple weatherbeaten picnic tables placed next to each other, one had an umbrella for shade. A stack of takeout menus sat on it under a heavy glass ashtray.

There was mostly shade back here and the air felt much cooler after having been in the steamy environment. Lena wasn’t about to go out there in a towel even if Kara seemed perfectly fine walking outside with her tits out and wet hair.

The woman noticed that Lena wasn’t following so she stepped back in. She looked at Lena in her towel as if really seeing her for the first time. She walked further back into the hallway and tugged open a closet door where stacks of towels and folded white bath robes were neatly stored. She pulled a robe off the shelf and handed it to Lena. 

Lena still wasn’t sure what they were doing, but she put it on and followed Kara outside.

Kara sat down at a table, took the menus from under the ashtray and spread them out. She found the one she wanted and slid it away from the rest toward where Lena stood at the end of the table. “Tell them you want an order for Kara … and add whatever you want. They know where to deliver.” When Lena didn’t reach for the menu Kara pushed it further across the table with just her fingertips pressed on the paper, slowly stretching her arm further and further until it was flat on the table and the side of her face was pressed against the weathered wood. Kara grinned up at her. She tried to make puppy eyes but ended up squinting in the sun. Lena picked up the menu and Kara pointed toward a phone on the wall in the hallway they’d just come from.

Lena watched in silence as Kara got up and raised her arms above her head, stretching like a cat. She pulled the towel from around her waist and wadded it into a roll then stepped up onto the bench of the other picnic table covered in sunlight that reached through the buildings. She laid herself out across the tabletop, face up, to absorb its rays, placing the towel under her head like a pillow and mindless of splinters or the dozens of apartment windows surrounding them with views overlooking the little concrete lot.

Lena went to the phone and dialed the number on the menu. She stared at the scrap of notebook paper fixed to the phone as she waited for someone to pick up. It said NO LONG DISTANCE!! WE WILL KNOW WHO DID IT!!! in red ballpoint pen and had layers of clear tape sealing it to the plastic. 

A voice interrupted her thoughts on the evolution of this warning’s history.

“Chu’s what’s your order,” the voice barked. 

“An order for Kara, please,” she said in her crisp, distinct business voice. She scanned the rest of the menu briefly and added, “and a hot tea.” They gave her a total and hung up.

When the food came it was … more than Lena had anticipated. A delivery man on a bicycle handed a brown paper grocery bag full of cartons through a makeshift little door in the back fence. Someone had cut about a two-foot square through the planks and added crossbracing to the pieces then reattached them with two mismatched hinges.

Lena handed over two bills and told him to keep the change, putting the wallet in the pocket of the robe.

Kara, who’d gotten up when she heard the bike coming, tied her towel back around her waist, took the bag from Lena. She sat at the picnic table and unloaded the cartons and two sets of chopsticks. She handed Lena her tea then began shoveling a carton of lo mein into her mouth. 

“Aren’t you cold?” Lena asked as she sat down on the opposite bench that was now shaded. She was just barely warm enough in her robe to avoid shivering.

“I run hot,” Kara said after a swallow. “Come sit in the sun with me and warm up.” She tilted her head toward the spot on the bench next to her and winked.

“I burn easily,” Lena said and didn’t move.

Watching Kara eat was an exercise in keeping her expression in check as she sipped at the miraculously still-hot tea. The woman went through two cartons of lo mein with a technique that seemed practiced and involved very little chewing. Then she drew a stack of three wider cartons toward her as if they contained treasure. 

This sequence of consumption was more like a ritual. In each carton there were 20 dumplings. After arranging the first box and a container of dark sauce just so, Kara would pick up a dumpling, dip it in the sauce, and hold it in her mouth as she gathered a second dumpling in the same manner. With two in her mouth she would close her eyes, chew, and swallow with the pleasure of the experience evident on her face. The ritual continued in silence until she’d gone through two of the three boxes.

“What do you do?” Kara asked when she’d taken a pause, moving the second carton aside and opening the third.

“I’m a scientist,” Lena answered honestly without thinking much of it. Kara’s face fell.

“Oh. So you want to dissect me, huh?” Kara asked voice flat, eyes suddenly devoid of emotion.

“No!” Lena gasped, horrified at the idea. “I would nev…”

Kara burst out laughing, cutting her off. “You should have seen your face. That was priceless,” she said, tucking back into the last box of potstickers with enthusiasm.

“Arsehole,” Lena muttered. Kara looked up when the accent slipped out but didn’t say anything. 

Lena snatched up the second pair of chopsticks that had come with the takeout, snapped them apart and motioned to the potstickers. “May I?” she asked casually. Kara tucked her head further down and growled, as she cradled the remaining container closer to her chest. Lena sat back immediately. “Sorry,” she said. “I was curious. You seem to like those a lot.”

“No,” Kara spoke just barely above a whisper. She cleared her throat. “I’m sorry I overreacted. You paid. You can have what you want.” Even that seemed hard for her to say. 

Lena may not have ever faced real hunger herself, but it didn’t mean she couldn’t recognize someone else who had. She quickly did some calculations in her head. If Kara needed this much at one meal, she may need several more meals each day. The cost would add up. Even though she looked human, employment meant having a Social Security number, a government-issued ID, taxes … unless it was something menial or illicit that paid under the table. 

“It doesn’t matter if I paid,” Lena said quietly. “It’s for you. Would just a bite be okay?” Lena asked. “Just enough for a taste.” Kara nodded and selected the most perfectly shaped potsticker left in the carton. She dipped it into the container of ponzu sauce, let it drip a couple times, and then held it out across the table, cupping her other hand under it to catch any drips.

Lena half stood, leaning across the table. She noticed Kara’s focus drift down to the creamy white skin of her chest. The potsticker speared on the chopsticks stayed steady though. Lena parted her lips, baring her teeth enough to take a bite from the tip where a drip was forming. Her teeth pressed through soft noodle and filling, and flavor burst across her tongue. It was salty and sweet and citrusy all at once, and the fat from the meat made the umami blossom.

“Mmmm,” she moaned as she chewed. “That’s really fucking good.”

Kara’s eyes lit in delight. “Right on! Why don’t other humans get that? I keep trying to explain it to Alex, but she just doesn’t dig it the way it deserves.” Kara seemed disproportionately disappointed about the opinion of one of the bathhouse employees.

“Alex is the one with the clipboard,” Lena observed. “Is she a manager?” she asked, recalling the exchange between them earlier.

“Yeah, she and Maggie run the place mostly. She’s my sister.”

Lena raised her eyebrows in surprise. As inexperienced as she was with aliens, even in the short time she’d been at the baths she felt like she had gotten a feel for who was human and who wasn’t, and both Alex and Maggie had seemed distinctly human to her.

“Adoptive. Sort of,” Kara clarified. “It’s not official or anything. Her family … Alex mostly … took care of me when I got here.”

“How long have you been here? If that’s ok to ask,” Lena said.

“Thirteen years,” Kara said. “As long as I was on my home planet.”

Lena suddenly brimmed with curiosity she couldn’t contain. Granted that one bit of information, the rest of her questions spilled out. “Where is your home planet? Why did you leave? And why come here? How far was it?”

Kara’s body language changed immediately. She shrunk and turned away, turned in on herself, shaking her head. “I don’t talk about it. I can’t,” she whispered.

“Oh,” Lena said, regretting her outburst. “I’m sorry.” She reached out and touched Kara’s forearm where she clutched an empty food carton, hoping to comfort, though she didn’t think she was very good at that sort of thing. “I’m very sorry. I won’t bring it up again,” she assured her. “I’m interested in you, and your life. Whatever you’re willing to share.”

Kara looked at her, longer and harder than before. Her tone was hard as well. “Are you really? Or do you just want to take the freak tour? Maybe fuck an alien, see what that’s like, brag to your friends?” Kara accused, testing her.

Lena felt her skin flush. She couldn’t deny that she was intrigued and that her scientific curiosity was going wild in this place, or that she was sexually drawn to Kara. It was all true. She knew this place wasn’t just about baths and steam. People came here to fuck. She’d come here knowing that. Open to it even. But there was more to this. 

“Yeah,” she said, meeting Kara’s eyes. “I really am.” She lowered her eyes again for the next admission. “I won’t say I’m not … attracted to you. Of course I am. You’re perfect.”

Kara rose from where she sat, leaving the messy pile of cartons and bag where they lay. To Lena she seemed taller, imposing, almost angry. 

“Don’t say that,” Kara said as she took two steps around the table and pulled Lena to her feet, practically lifting her over the bench and pulling her close. “I’m not.”

Lena felt the first spark of fear since she’d arrived at the baths. It wasn’t a fear of Kara or what she could do to her. It was a fear for what roiled inside this broken goddess, for what tormented her. What had she gone through? What kind of trigger could lance through her, taking her into utter darkness in one fleeting moment?

“Ok,” Lena said, backing up as Kara let her go but kept advancing. The tall alien was looking at her hungrily now, one appetite sated and another rising. Lena felt heat pooling in her own body in response. She fisted her hands and crossed her arms over her stomach trying not to show it, though she realized that she was looking down and to the side, practically baring her neck in submission. 

She chastised herself and forced herself to snap out of it. Uncrossing her arms, she lifted her chin and stopped backing away, letting Kara get closer and closer. She held her ground. Kara smiled.

The alien reached for Lena’s wrist and slid her hand gently up inside the loose sleeve of the robe until she reached the chain with her key. She slipped a finger under the thin braid of metal and loosened it, pulling it down Lena’s arm until it slipped over her hand and into Kara’s. 

Kara took Lena’s hand and led her back into the baths. She turned right down a dim hallway to a set of stairs that led to the upper floors. They took four flights up. Lena’s heartbeat began to pound from the effort and from her own anticipation. Before she knew it they were standing in front of a cheap door with the number 14 stenciled in black paint. Kara opened it with the key. They stepped in together and Lena heard her turn a bolt lock. 

The room, if you could call it that, was bare of anything non-essential. There was a mattress on a platform, a shelf with towels stacked on it, and a small unopened bottle of lube. There was a box of tissues and a wastebasket. Lena’s distaste must have shown on her face. 

Kara’s eyes swept across the room. “Hold on,” she said. “Let me get us some water.” She unbolted the door and turned back to Lena. “I’ll tap twice, then once. Lock it.” With that she was gone. Lena locked the door once more for all the good it would do. She was pretty sure she could kick the flimsy barrier open herself if it came to it. She sat on the bed and looked up. There wasn’t even a ceiling to the room, just a couple of two-by-fours crossing from wall to wall to give it a little stability. This was like a corner in a rat maze. Christ, what was she doing?

There were two taps on the door, then a single one. Lena opened opened it for Kara, who held four small paper cups of water. She walked in and set them carefully down on the rickety table by the mattress.

“Four star service,” Lena mumbled, not ungrateful, but still.

“Welcome to my world, Pretty,” Kara said. “You don’t have to do this. You don’t have to be here,” she pointed out, still facing the corner of the room. 

“Lena. My name is Lena,” she said. “I’m sorry. That was very considerate of you.”

Kara turned back toward Lena then.

For the first time, really, Lena let herself take in all of Kara as the woman tugged the towel from her waist and tossed it on the mattress. Her breasts were much smaller than Lena’s own, proportional to her lean muscular frame. Her abdominal muscles looked like a professional athlete’s, and the carved vee of her obliques guided the eyes to the dark blonde hair of her pubic mound. Lena looked up and realized that now that Kara’s hair had dried in the sun, yes, it was closer to blonde than brown.

Lena tugged the sash of her robe loose and let the ends drop from her hands. She stood there, her eyes inviting Kara to do the rest. 

Kara complied. She took the lapels of Lena’s robe and pushed them apart and back over her shoulders, baring all of Lena’s body as she let the material fall. The robe caught briefly at the curve of Lena’s hips before it dropped the rest of the way. Now she and Kara stood naked before each other. 

Kara’s body still gleamed with oil. Lena reached out to touch her, a palm resting on the firm muscle of her chest. She could feel the heat of the sun Kara had been basking in radiating into her palm.

“Oh,” Lena muttered, feeling small and swept up in this moment, in this odd situation she hadn’t dared to imagine.

Kara stepped forward, pulled Lena’s body to her own, and lowered her head, bringing their lips together. Kara tasted of sweet and savory citrus, and Lena opened herself to the experience. 

Kara picked her up and laid her down on the mattress, pressed her one of her thighs between Lena’s. Kara’s hands roamed her body, pressed and tugged her closer in the rhythm she set for her. Sounds of pleasure bubbled up from Lena’s throat. She couldn’t stop herself. Some of Kara’s touches were so insistent they hurt in a way that sharpened her senses and shut out the rest of the world. She didn’t care. She embraced the pain. To feel that wanted, that desired, it was intoxicating. Lena wondered briefly if Kara had a strength like the man in the gymnasium. Could she bend steel with her bare hands? Could she break Lena with one slip of control?

Other touches were near electric, sending sensation flashing through Lena’s core. When Kara placed fingertips between her legs, Lena keened with the pleasure of it. 

“Ssssh, shhh,” Kara whispered. “You’re so wet for me.”

Lena nodded, her eyes clenched tight and hands gripping Kara’s shoulders hard. “Yes. Yes. Yes,” she pleaded and writhed as Kara pulsed the pads of two fingers at her opening, moving a bit further inside each time.

“I’m gonna fuck you so good, baby, don’t worry. But you’ve gotta be quiet, ok?” Kara waited for Lena’s nod of understanding. “You can bite me if it helps. Bite my shoulder. You can’t hurt me.” Kara eased to the side, cradling Lena’s shoulders with one arm as her hand continued to press and stroke. As Kara slid her fingers inside, Lena set her teeth to alien skin and pressed down. She could feel Kara’s nod. She felt hot breath on her ear as Kara murmured, “Good girl, good girl,” over and over in her ear. 

Kara stroked inside her as if she knew exactly what would send Lena skyrocketing to her climax. The orgasm hit hard, and Lena bit down viciously to hold in a scream. She felt hot liquid spurt from her cunt in little gushes with each pulse and gasped at the sensation. That had never happened before. And then Kara was easing her down, kissing her shoulders, her neck her temple. Laying her back down on the mattress and grabbing a towel to pat them both dry.

“That was so hot,” Kara whispered in her ear.

Lena felt wrung out, limp. The heat from the baths below filled the room and the air was thick with it. It made her feel like she was floating.

“Meet me downstairs in the shower room,” she heard. And then the click of the lock being undone, the door being opened and closed.

Lena tried to tamp down the disappointment. A fast fuck and she was gone. Was that it?

Once recovered, Lena drank the water from the cups Kara had left and threw them away. She stripped the bed and wadded the towel in the sheets. She put on her robe, patting the pocket to make sure her wallet was still inside. By the stairs was the laundry hamper Maggie had told her about. She dropped the dirty linens inside it and went to find Kara.  
_____

Kara wasn’t in the shower room, so Lena went to the front counter to put her wallet back in her purse. Maggie was polite though obviously curious. 

“Have a nice lunch?” she asked with a certain look in her eye. 

“Yes, very nice,” Lena said and didn’t elaborate. Maggie didn’t press. Lena walked back into the shower room, glancing around again to look for Kara.

She hung up her robe and stepped into the empty communal shower. She was glad she had come at a time of day when there weren't many patrons. She wondered if the ones here now had night jobs. Or jobs at all. How did an alien survive if they didn’t look human? She tried to keep her hair as dry as she could as she rinsed and cleaned herself off. There was a soap dispenser she made use of. A change in the air made her aware of someone coming into the shower with her. She froze.

“Just me,” Kara breathed. Lena turned to look up at her. She was golden and grinning, still a goddess. A naked one. Kara moved below the shower head next to the one Lena was using and turned it on.

“Take me to your place,” Kara said quietly. It wasn’t a demand, but it was insistent.

Lena didn’t reply. She looked over at Kara, though, and noticed the other woman rinsing her chest but keeping one hand cupped in front of her groin.

“What? Is it a shithole?” Kara teased. Lena shook her head. “Live with your parents?” she tried again.

“God no,” Lena answered, huffing out a laugh and turning her back to the spray. If she took Kara to her place, she would know where she lived. She would be able to tell she had money. She could blackmail her if she wanted. Or worse. Lena valued her privacy above all else, and she had chosen her place accordingly. It was isolated and secure. Once she invited Kara in … anything could happen.

“What about your place?” Lena asked.

“It’s a shithole. And not a safe neighborhood for people like you,” Kara stated, the implication clear. 

“Ok,” Lena said. She was insane. Certifiable. This was a stupid, foolish, dangerous risk. But she wanted more of Kara. She could feel a warm soreness between her legs and she wanted so much more. She wanted to explore more of what she had felt with Kara, and she wanted to discover what Kara was hiding behind her clasped hands.

“Cool. Go get dressed,” Kara instructed in a low voice. “Act like you’re going home. There’s a coffee place around the corner on Canal that’s not too shitty. Wait for me there. I’ll be about 20 minutes,” Kara promised. She kissed her again sweetly, cupping and petting one of Lena’s breasts as if saying goodbye to them for now.

Lena wrapped her towel around her waist, not feeling as self-conscious anymore, and walked out of the shower and back to the changing room. There she noticed another counter, basically the back side of the lobby area. Maggie was reading a comic book with her feet up on a stool. 

“Basket 14, please,” Lena said, handing over her key this time. 

“Going so soon?” Maggie asked, pretending not to be nosey. “You paid for the whole day.”

“I have to get back to work,” Lena said cooly, meeting Maggie’s eyes with an even stare. This kind of lying she excelled at.

“Right,” Maggie said, pulling the basket off the shelf and handing it to Lena. “Hope we see you again,” she added, raising an eyebrow.

“Mmm,” Lena replied, noncommittal, and gave a small smile.

Lena got dressed, pulled her watch from her purse and put it on so that she could track the time until Kara met her.

With her sunglasses on she stepped out of the building, not looking back. She turned left toward Canal and went to find the coffee shop.  
_____

Kara took a longer shower, a cold one, trying to get her shaft to retract. It calmed down but that was it. Like it knew what was on her mind and what she was hoping would happen when Lena took her to her place, and it couldn’t let go of that excitement. This was a huge risk. What if Lena was repelled by it? What if this was some kind of evil scientist trap? 

She shook off the negative thoughts. Lena was the most beautiful human she’d ever seen. She didn’t care about the risk. She really liked her, and Kara could tell she was different from most of the humans who showed up at the baths. Kara finished dressing and went to the front counter. 

“I’m splitting,” she called out. 

“Stay safe, kid,” Maggie replied from the office.  
_____

Lena was pretending to read a newspaper though not really comprehending any of the words when she heard the bell on the glass door ring.

“Hey! I thought I told you not to come in here anymore! Get out!” the man behind the counter yelled.

“Up yours, Snapper. I’m just looking for somebody.” 

Lena looked up to see Kara looking unfairly sexy in jeans and a bomber jacket with a shearling collar. Aviator sunglasses completed the look. She had to remind herself to breathe.

Kara’s eyes roved the diner and barely slowed when her gaze crossed Lena’s. “Who wants your crappy old danish anyway?” she barked. With that Kara turned and left, the bell jangling again in her wake. As soon as the other patrons had settled back down from the disruption Lena pushed her coffee cup away and walked out the door, following in the direction she’d seen Kara go. 

She spotted the alien waiting for a light at the next crosswalk and caught up to her.

“Hey, what’s …” she began.

“Neighborhood has a lot of eyes and ears,” Kara said, barely audible and not looking at her. “Walk ahead of me. I’ll follow you from a ways back. Don’t worry about losing me.”  
_____

Lena approached a black door between two wholesale fabric shops. Generations of glossy lacquer gave it a shine and the wire glass window in the top half was hardly scratched and free of spray paint. Lena fished in her purse for a set of keys and unlocked the deadbolt. Inside a set of narrow stairs with rubber tread led up into cool shadows. Lena locked the door behind them. Kara stayed quiet. She’d been to weirder setups than this.

They climbed the steps single file since it wasn’t wide enough to be side by side. At the top of the landing they followed the hallway to what Kara guessed was the back of the building. Here Lena unlocked another door that opened into a storage floor. Long sturdy cardboard tubes were strapped in groups and laid on pallets in rows. Boxes were stacked high against the walls.

Lena locked the door behind them and walked further into the dark. Kara watched her bend down and pull up the strap of a rolling door. She was starting to think maybe she hadn’t been to weirder setups. Behind the door was a large freight elevator, at least 15 by 15 feet.

“You live here?” Kara asked.

“Yeah,” Lena replied. “You still interested?”

Kara looked over the human once again. There were a couple windows letting light onto this floor, but Lena stood in the shadows. Still, she fascinated Kara. And nothing on this planet could really hurt her, so why not? She wasn’t afraid. She nodded and stepped closer to Lena in the dark. What she intended to be a gentle kiss turned more intense and didn’t stop until Lena pressed a hand on her chest.

“Hold that thought, space girl,” Lena said with a smile. 

She swept open the metal grate of the elevator and they stepped inside. Lena closed the overhead door and the gate, latched it, and pulled a lever for the car to rise.

“Cool,” Kara said.

“Thanks,” Lena replied. “I like it. Not as many people around as a regular apartment building.”

“You like being on your own?” Kara asked as the elevator slowly rumbled up past three empty floors that Kara could peer into through the grate as the car rose. They were open floor space with support columns, windows across the front, and a lot of dust.

“Yeah,” Lena said, jerking the lever back with perfect timing to stop at the top floor, which was sealed from view by another rollup door. She swept the metal grate aside again. Lena took out her keys and unlocked heavy padlocks securing each side of the door. She pulled up on the strap and the door disappeared into the overhead bay. 

There wasn’t much in Lena’s living space, but it seemed to make sense for this odd beautiful scientist. Kara walked in and looked around, her boots clomping on the old hardwood floors echoed through the space. There were two barred windows on the back wall with the freight elevator. Kara walked over to one and could see the alley below through the grates of the fire escape. The window was cracked open, but she noted it was barred from opening any further with bolts at the sides. She turned back to the room. A glow of warm late afternoon light poured in from floor-to-ceiling front windows. Some of those were cracked open, too.

“Interesting place,” Kara said. Lena had finished pulling down the door and securing the padlocks on the inside.

There were shelves of books and piles of more books on the floor and in stacks against the walls. Kara noticed a workbench and heavy wooden work tables in one back corner. There was a small kitchen area against one wall. It looked minimal but nice enough. 

The bed in the center of the room was big. Real big. The bedframe was tarnished copper pipe.

“It works for me,” Lena said as she walked over to a large wooden desk and set down her purse and keys. She hung her jacket on the back of the desk chair and looked out the windows. It was only 4:30 but the days were getting short. The light was already fading.

The phone on the desk rang. Lena picked up the black Bakelite receiver. “Luthor,” she said and winced. 

_Luthor. Huh._ thought Kara.  
_____

Lena winced at her own mistake. So much for keeping her identity secret. She looked over at Kara, who was starting to explore the rest of the floor. Kara grinned and winked at her.

“What kind of trash are you bringing home this time? Is it one of your rock band boys?” Lillian’s voice came through the receiver loud and clear. Lena was certain Kara could hear every word. She put two fingers to her temple to remind herself not to lose her temper and looked at the handsome alien poking through her cupboards. She was tall and lanky, and the jacket effectively covered her chest. Her curly hair fell around her face and the longer parts fell just below her shoulders in a gorgeously tousled look. Yeah, she looked the part. Better.

Someone from the fabric wholesalers must’ve ratted her out. Lena looked forward to the day when her mother didn’t have time to bribe spies to watch her. 

“Yes, mother. He’s a rock band boy,” Lena replied in a dry tone. Kara waved to get her attention and then made a face, squinting one eye and lolling her tongue out of the side of her mouth as she lifted up the hem of her smiley face t-shirt and flashed a breast at Lena. Of course she wasn’t wearing a bra. Why should she?

Lena stifled a laugh, hoping her mother wouldn’t hear it. As she gazed at the woman, she wondered at how she was no less dangerous looking and sexy than when they’d first met, but now she’d added an element of carefree goofiness as well. Another layer to apply to her understanding. And it seemed she hadn’t picked up on the Luthor slip. Maybe she didn’t know who they were. Why would she give a rat’s ass about some rich corporate elites anyway?

“Well be discreet and use protection for god’s sake. The last thing this family needs is another bastard.”

The phone base rang with the force of her slamming the receiver down.

“Bitch.”

Kara walked up behind her and wrapped her arms around her waist. The tall alien tucked her chin into Lena’s neck, and Lena pressed back into the heat of her chest.

“You see dudes, too?”

“On occasion. Is that a problem?”

“Nah. Me too. Just didn’t know about you.”

“Well, I definitely prefer women, but that gets more complicated. I’m not out to my parents, of course. You know how it is,” she said.

“Yeah, I know complicated,” Kara whispered, her lips now on Lena’s neck.

Lena inhaled deeply in response to the soft delicate touch. Still, the art of being a good hostess had been deeply ingrained in her from a young age. “You hungry?” Lena asked, remembering that Kara had been looking through cabinets. She turned in Kara’s embrace to face her and slipped her arms up over her shoulders. Kara tilted her head and gazed at her like she’d done something special.

“I’m good. Thanks.” Lena was fairly certain she was lying, even as she watched Kara’s gaze move over to the bed. 

“Mmhmm,” Lena murmured. “Got something else on your mind?”

“Yeahhhh,” Kara drawled. She tightened her hold around Lena’s waist and bent down and gathered Lena’s legs in her other arm, picking her up in a bridal carry and eliciting a squeal from the Luthor. She looked down to find her blushing as she carried her to the bed and set her gently down.

Kara took off her jacket and threw it to the floor as Lena watched. The threadbare t-shirt didn’t do much to hide her breasts and how her nipples were standing erect. It didn’t matter. Kara took it off and tossed it aside, too. Lena bit her lip in anticipation. Kara sat on the bed to wrench the Frye boots off her feet and toss them aside as well. She looked down at her tube socks with the red stripes around the top as if pondering whether to leave them on. She nodded decisively and stripped them off, tossing them beside the boots.

Lena couldn’t help but notice the way that Kara had a leanness that made her look hungry, like a stray on the street. It made Lena want to feed her until she was fully satisfied. She wanted to watch her tear into a steak and devour it and follow it with cake and ice cream and anything and everything else Kara wanted.

Kara climbed onto the bed and on top of Lena. She leaned down to kiss the sensitive area where her shoulder met her throat, intending to make her way down Lena’s body from there, but she felt a hand push at her chest and stopped.

“It’s my turn to please you,” Lena said, trying to push Kara off so that she could be on top but finding her immovable.

“No. Not yet. I want to taste you first,” Kara said, tugging open the button of Lena’s jeans.

“Please,” Lena said. “Show me.”

“Show you what?” Kara played ignorant.

“Show me.”  
_____

Kara knew what Lena meant. This one was observant. She hadn’t missed Kara trying to hide her shaft in the shower. With the position they’d been in most of the time in Lena’s room it hadn’t been an issue, but she’d definitely gotten aroused to the point of inversion.

Her mind was pinging back and forth like a pinball. Why couldn’t anything be easy? Why’d Lena have to say Luthor into the phone? Now Kara couldn’t unknow that.

And the Luthors were definitely known in the alien community. When humans weren’t around the bathhouse was a place where information could be exchanged. Aliens didn’t exist on this planet as isolated individuals tethered together only by a thread of otherworld commonality, just trying to keep their heads down. In a way they did, sure, but they also kept the most dangerous humans under surveillance, and they all knew something bad was coming. They all knew it, and the Luthors and their government contracts were right in the thick of it. 

Kara knew about Lionel and Lex and even Lillian, but she hadn’t heard anything about Lena, which meant she was an unknown. That or the aliens who kept up surveillance didn’t find her harmful enough to worry about. 

This would be a lot simpler if they were still just a couple nameless strangers who met at the baths. And if Alex ever found out, she’d kill Kara herself.

Kara pressed Lena back down on the bed and straddled her. She started undoing the buttons of her blouse as Lena helped by undoing the ones at her cuffs. The shirt was a deep crimson in a shiny synthetic fabric. Her bra was black, plain. 

Kara reached under Lena’s back, and Lena arched for her, raising off the bed and bracing on her elbows. Kara undid the bra clasp, pushed the blouse off Lena’s shoulders and then the bra straps. Lena shrugged her arms free and pushed her clothes off the mattress, lying back with her hands behind her head and a smug expression that said she liked the way Kara’s gaze was locked on her chest once more and frozen in an enamored glaze.

“Like what you see, alien?” Lena asked. 

That’s when Kara began to notice the marks, the dusky purpling tinges in specific spots. Had she … 

Kara needed to know. To confirm. She unzipped Lena’s jeans and tugged them down along with her underwear.

“I guess so,” Lena cracked, squirming to help Kara remove her tight jeans and panties and kicking them aside, thinking the alien was just being enthusiastic for more.

Kara’s fears were confirmed. There were marks on Lena’s hip bones, on her inner thigh, finger marks on one shoulder where Kara had cradled her. In all the places Kara had gripped. 

Kara’s eyes darted from one marked spot to another.

“I’ve hurt you,” she said, furious at herself and her carelessness.

Lena realized what Kara was seeing as Kara started to back away, not touching her anymore.

“I’m so sorry, I’m so sorry,” Kara repeated.

“Hey, no you didn’t,” Lena said, reaching out and stopping Kara’s retreat. “Hey, it’s ok. I’m fine. I just bruise easy. It shows more because I’m pale,” she assured her.

“I’ll be more careful,” Kara told her earnestly, looking Lena in the eye and recalling every touch, recalculating how much pressure she could use. She never wanted to hurt this human. She really liked her. “I’ll be more gentle.”

Lena’s eyes turned dark, wicked, commanding. “Don’t you fucking dare.”

With that she pulled Kara to her, on top of her. Kissed her furiously, open mouthed with teeth tugging at Kara’s lips and tongue. She wrapped her legs around Kara’s ass. She writhed under her, and yes, Kara found herself swept up in the urgency of it and getting hotter and hotter by the moment. Rao she wanted to fuck this human.

“You want to see. I’ll show you,” she told Lena and extracted herself from Lena’s hold so that she could stand. Fuck caution. Fuck safe. She pushed down her jeans and the pair of bikini panties she wore. She watched Lena’s expression and the slight knitting of her brows as she looked at Kara’s crotch and the smooth mound of curly hair there. It wasn’t an expression of disappointment. It was the challenge of curiosity after a hypothesis had been proven incorrect.

Kara crawled back onto the bed, upright on her knees, and reached for Lena, pulling her up so that they faced each other. Kara leaned in and kissed Lena’s shoulder softly and moved her lips to her ear. 

“You weren’t wrong,” she whispered. She took one of Lena’s hands and lifted it up, examining the long fingers and well trimmed nails. She grinned at Lena and held eye contact as she took Lena’s middle finger into her mouth and sucked on it, swirling her tongue around it in a wet caress. Lena closed her eyes at the sensation until Kara lowered the hand again and brought it to her crotch, sitting back a little so that Lena could see the cleft, the barely noticeable parting of hair where she placed Lena’s fingertip and then slowly pushed her hips forward as Lena watched, fascinated, as the flesh beneath her fingertip parted.

Kara groaned in pleasure as she felt Lena’s finger slide all the way inside her slick shaft. She covered Lena’s hand with her own and held it tight to her as she ground her hips. She looked to Lena and with her free hand demonstrated the motion she wanted.

“Do this,” Kara showed her, pushing her own middle finger forward and then bending and straightening it in a fluid beckoning motion. Lena complied and Kara shouted, “Yes!” and clamped her free hand on Lena’s shoulder, careful not to squeeze too hard.

Lena pressed her forehead to Kara’s shoulder and gripped her ass. It wasn’t long before Kara felt herself swelling and Lena’s head popped up, curiosity and delight in her eyes.

“Now you can see,” Kara said.  
_____

Just as she was thinking, Fuck I can’t believe I’m doing this, this is amazing, this feels amazing being inside her like this, and responding the the pulse and grip of Kara’s shaft, Lena felt it press and resist agains the tip of her finger.

She looked up to check in with Kara.

“Now you can see,” she said. Lena grinned and playfully swirled her fingertip against the nub pushing back at her and intently pushing her finger out of Kara. Kara made a high-pitched sound of pleasure in response followed by a gush of breath, and suddenly Lena was holding a firm slender wand of flesh in her palm, the shaft inverted.

“Cool,” she said, looking down. It was about the size of her finger with a tip that flexed and reshaped itself from bulb to point, flicking like a tongue. It was purple, and shiny with its own lubricant, the slickness Lena had felt inside. And it was growing larger by the second. She began to stroke. 

“Oh, Rao,” Kara groaned, moving her hips to match Lena’s movements.

Lena ran her thumb over the tip. “There’s no fluid duct,” she observed. 

“Nope,” Kara grunted. “Just for pleasure. Not messy like dudes.” Lena smiled and kept watching the changes. Tissue at the base swelled into a knot and thickened down the length of the shaft. Lena kept looking from the shaft to Kara’s face, revelling in the wash of ecstasy flowing over her features.

“Is this good?” she asked, wanting desperately to show Kara the same kind of pleasure she’d been shown.

“So good,” Kara gritted. “You can grip harder. It’s ok.” Lena did, and the “Aaahhhhh” that burst from Kara’s throat and echoed across the room made her giggle. 

Lena watched the shaft, watched in awe as the knot began to undulate up and down the length. She changed her stroke to chase it, following it up and down, making a ring of her thumb and forefinger as the shaft elongated and thickened further.

“Can I put my mouth on it?” she asked in a breathy whisper.

“Later,” Kara grunted. “Raooooo, I want to fuck you.” Kara grabbed Lena’s shoulders and pushed her away enough for them to look eye to eye. “Is that ok? Can I do that?”

Lena nodded emphatically, continuing to stroke, and Kara stayed still until she said it out loud. “Yes. Yes. Fuck, yes.” Then Kara moved quickly to lie back on the bed. Lena knew she was dripping wet inside. She straddled Kara, encouraging her, “I’m so ready, I’m so wet. I want you to fuck me so hard.”

Lena grasped the base of the shaft where the knot had stilled and placed the pulsing tip at her entrance. 

She tried to go slow, but it didn’t happen that way. She wanted to hold off on her orgasm, but that didn’t happen either. She lowered herself down onto the shaft, feeling it fill her up, and Kara’s hands at her hips pressed her down over the base. When the knot slipped in, narrowing to ease through the tight ring of muscle squeezing down on the shaft and then swelling again inside and then beginning to move … Lena lost all power of thought or control and started keening a loud crescendo of wordless guttural shrieks until her orgasm slammed through her and wracked her body with spasms. The movement inside her kept it going longer and longer. Her toes curled so tight they cramped. Her fingernails drug down Kara’s torso as their hips bucked together, making red streaks that lasted a moment before they faded away.

Finally spent she collapsed on top of Kara, who wrapped her in her arms and warmed her. As Lena’s thoughts drifted slowly, as her mind restarted and reconnected to her body bit by bit, she realized how warm Kara really was. She hadn’t noticed in the baths where the air was thick with steam, but here in her loft, which stayed fairly chilly, Kara’s body radiated a heat that went straight through her and warmed her to the bone. 

“Mmmmmm,” she hummed out in pleasure. Kara was still inside her, still large and filling her up, but the knot had ceased moving and she could only feel a pleasant pulse from the shaft in sync with the throb of her own heartbeat. 

“You ok?” Kara whispered to her. “Not freaked out or anything?” 

Lena considered as she tried to bring back the physical control to form words. It had been mindblowing for sure, the best orgasm of her life, but not the pounding, punishing fuck she was accustomed to from men. She and Kara had stayed pressed together and the majority of stimulation had happened inside her without the friction of in-and-out and the banging of hips into soft flesh. That was cool sometimes, it had its own place, but this was so different.

“Yeah. God that was great,” she mumbled into Kara’s chest. “Sorry. Not real articulate. Still coming down.”

She could feel Kara’s grin against the top of her head. “Don’t come down too far. I’m not done.”  
_____

Kara eased Lena onto her back and adjusted herself so that Lena’s hips were bracketed between Kara’s thighs and Kara’s legs were folded under her, braced on the balls of her feet. She leaned over Lena and closed her eyes.

“What are you doing?” Lena asked.

“I’m getting in tune with your body and what it wants,” she answered. Her shaft slowly began to shift shape again. Not the rolling hard knot of before but more like a soft wave. Lena purred in response. Kara smiled, knowing that what she intended would be like nothing else Lena had ever experienced.

It was a slow build bringing Lena back to the peak of receptiveness, bringing her to the brink of flames and then allowing her body to calm and relax, over and over again, approaching the edge and backing away. Each approach brought the ache of pleasure higher and more intense.

When Lena was on her hands and knees in front of Kara, speared with her shaft, begging and cursing for Kara to let her come, then Kara let herself go and fucked Lena with all she had. She thrust and pulled back, letting the knot pop through the ring of muscle at Lena’s opening, causing her to shriek again. Then she would thrust and pop it back in.

“Fuck!” Lena screamed. She was so open and wet and it felt so dirty getting pounded from behind. She loved it and it hit every physical want she had so perfectly she stopped thinking anything about it and just pounded back into Kara’s hips with every thrust, shouting and wailing, not caring if pedestrians five fucking stories below could hear. 

Her orgasm rocked her to the tips of her fingers and toes, raising her off the bed in a jolt of motion that, for a second, locked every muscle taut before releasing her and rolling and rolling and rolling through her body. She heard Kara howling and felt her jerky thrusts banging her ass. She looked back and saw the woman with her head thrown back and the muscles of her neck and chest straining, mouth wide even after sound was no longer coming out. Lena collapsed and Kara followed, gently pulling out of her but staying half on top of her, wrapping her in her warm arms. 

_____

Lena hadn’t turned on any lights, but the city provided plenty. It was yellow street lights and neon and dots of fluorescent light from office buildings blotting out the sky, looking like a grid of stars. 

They lay together in the quasi dark, listening to each other breathe and the sounds drifting up from the street. Traffic, voices, sometimes a shout or a horn. It was a city buzz they were both familiar with. There must’ve been a convertible with the radio on stopped at the light. The opening notes drifted up clearly, deep notes of a piano building up.

In perfect time with the music, Kara began to sing. She began softly, but her voice was clear and resonated in the big open space.

Tonight you’re mine … completely  
You give your love … so sweetly  
Tonight the light of love is in your eyes  
But will you love me … tomorrow?

The car drove away, but Kara continued to sing, her eyes closed as if listening to the music in her head. 

Is this a lasting … treasure  
Or just a moment’s … pleasure?  
Can I believe … the magic of your sighs?  
Will you still love me … tomorrow?

The sweetness of her voice filled the room, letting the lyrics slowly unfold, unhurried and true to the composition. She sang louder still with the next verse, filling her lungs with air and belting out the words and all of the vulnerability woven into them.

Tonight with words … unspoken  
You say that I’m the only one  
But will my heart … be broken  
When the night … meets the morning sun?

With the final verse her voice grew much softer. Lena stared openly, astounded by the beauty of Kara’s singing voice and the unexpected performance.

I’d like to know that your love  
Is love I can … be sure of  
So tell me now, and I won’t ask again

Kara opened her eyes and looked down at Lena, whose head was still resting on her arm, and finished gently. 

Will you still love me tomorrow?

“I love that song,” Kara said. “It gets me every time I hear it.”

“Why?” Lena asked, wondering at this romantic side of the woman she had now spent most of the day with and to whom she had opened her most intimate self.

“She just wants to be loved. But she can’t trust that it’s real or that it will last even more than a day. I can understand that kind of loneliness,” Kara finished in a whisper.

Lena turned onto her side, reaching up to softly cup Kara’s face and guide it to her own. She kissed her as gently and meaningfully as she knew how, trying to tell her, in words that she couldn’t say, that she understood it as well.  
_____

They kissed and held each other and dozed a little. Later in the evening Lena got up to pee and saw that it was getting late. At her desk she scrawled a note for Kara saying she would be back soon and set it on the pillow next to her. 

She put on her jacket, unbolted the extra security she’d put on the door to the fire stairs and left that way so as not to wake up the alien snoring adorably in her bed. 

She returned about 40 minutes later, calling the freight elevator down. She wasn’t going to carry these two heavy bags up five flights if she didn’t have to.

When she heaved open the overhead door to her flat she found Kara in her t-shirt and underwear at the kitchen table wolfing down a bowl of cereal as if it might be the last food she ever ate. Lena put down her bags and resecured the flat. She felt more than heard Kara come up behind her. 

She heard a deep inhale of breath followed by a squeak of excitement. 

“Is that all food?” Kara asked, incredulous. “I mean, I had some cereal. I hope that’s ok.”

“Of course it’s okay,” Lena said, picking up one bag and taking it to the kitchen. Kara picked up the other and followed. Lena put the milk and cereal away and placed the empty bowl in the sink as she explained. 

“I wanted to … well, not thank you … that would be weird. I wanted to do something for you. And … surprising though it may be, seeing as I’ve been screaming your name just recently … I don’t know that much about you other than you seem to really enjoy food.” She started unloading the bags and Kara helped, opening cartons and boxes and aluminum foil packets and taking deep inhales of enticing aromas. “I know a lot of really wonderful places around town, but these are just from the restaurants I like within a few blocks of here.”

“This must have been so much trouble,” Kara said in wonder. “How did you even do this?”

“Oh,” Lena replied, thinking it hadn’t really been that big of a deal. “I just walked around my favorite spots and placed an order with the host and then went on to the next place.” She smiled her biggest smile as she reached for the last box and brought it out of the bag. “And I ended up at this bakery I’m always tempted by, and I got just about one of everything,” she said proudly, opening the box for Kara to see the colorful collection of pastries with frostings and glazes and sugary fruit fillings.

Kara’s mouth was open in awe, and Lena was afraid she might actually start to cry.

“And then I just went around to the places where I’d placed orders and picked up the food. I hope this wasn’t too presumptuous of me. Are you still hungry?”

Kara did blink back a tear. “I’m starving, actually,” she said, looking at all the food laid out. She looked at Lena, a wisp of confusion crossing her features. “Thank you.”

“Well, dig in,” Lena insisted, placing a plate and a set of silverware in front of Kara. There was everything from sweet and sour soup to sirloin steak, so she would need it. “Don’t let it get cold.”

Kara sat down and eagerly started arranging and opening boxes. She had half loaded her plate with a sampling of several dishes when she stopped suddenly. 

“I’m sorry,” she said as if she’d done something wrong. “Some of this must be for you. I’m sure you’re hungry, too. Shit. I’m sorry.” She looked like she might start putting food back into its containers, so Lena stopped her with a hand placed gently on a forearm.

“Kara, if you want to eat every bite, it’s yours. I want you to have it. This is from places where I get to eat all the time. I don’t cook a lot, really. Or eat much, to be honest,” she said. “Eat until you’re full. I’d really like that.”

Kara calmed down, though she still looked a little abashed about her behavior, but then she brightened. “Hey, grab a plate and join me. Please.”

Lena smiled, and Kara took a moment to memorize the dimples that seemed to do something to her. In case she never saw them again.

Lena got a plate and sat down next to Kara, who proceeded to sample and share bites of everything Lena had bought and then went back for more of her favorites. She enjoyed describing the flavors and textures as she experienced them to Lena. 

Kara tried a vegetable purée from the French restaurant and her eyes suddenly closed. She stilled. 

“This tastes like something we had on Krypton.” It was a planet Lena had never heard of. Kara shifted, eyes opening wide in a slight panic. “Can I use your phone?”

“Sure,” Lena said.

Kara walked over to Lena’s desk, swallowing a last bite and wiping her mouth on the sleeve of her t-shirt. She picked up the receiver and dialed.

“Hey, Alex, don’t be mad,” Kara said as soon as she heard someone pick up. She quickly pointed the receiver away from her face for a moment. Lena could only hear someone who was clearly upset and various forms of the word fuck spewing from the ear piece.

“Hey! Hey!” Kara tried to get a word in. “I’m sorry! I went over to Barry’s and he fed me, and I got a little stoned and I fell asleep.” The response was quieter this time. “I know. I promise we won’t get in trouble. I’m just going to crash here, ok. … Ok.” Kara’s expression softened. Lena took note of the easy lies. It sounded so natural and plausible. If she continued to see Kara … And when had that possibility begun to take root in her brain? That this might be more than a one-time thing … She needed to know that an excuse didn’t necessarily mean the truth with Kara. “Sorry to make you worry,” Kara told Alex. “I love you, too. Bye,” she said and hung up.

Lena expected Kara to return to the table, but she dialed another number.

Kara waited for the hello this time. “Barry, it’s Kara. Hey, I need you to cover for me tonight.” Kara listened for a moment. “No, nothing bad. I just don’t want Alex on my case. I came over around 3 or 4, we ate, we got a little high, we fell asleep, then I called Alex to check in, then we watched some TV and crashed. Got it?” Kara listened for a moment. “Thanks, man. I owe you one.” The person on the other end said something that made Kara roll her eyes and say, “Yeah, she’s really cute. Shut up. Later, man.” She hung up and came back to the table.

Lena couldn’t judge too harshly. She had lied to her own family countless times in order to have her own life.

“That sounded kind of serious. Is everything ok?” she asked Kara.

“Yeah. Alex is just … super protective … and really uptight when it comes to me,” Kara took another mouthful of the chicken pot pie from the all night diner and moaned in pleasure before looking at Lena with more than a little guilt in her eyes. “… And humans,” she finished.

“That’s why you didn’t want anyone to know we were in a room at the baths,” Lena said.

“She doesn’t think I should ever hook up with humans. Gets nervous. Thinks I’ll really hurt somebody, like lose control.”

“Could you?”

“It happened once. I was practically still a kid. It won’t happen again.” Kara looked ashamed. “I’m sorry again … about the bruises.”

Lena gently put a hand on Kara’s shoulder and propped her chin in the other. “Kara. Believe me when I tell you that any time sex has been really good for me, I’ve come away with bruises. It’s not just you,” she assured.

Kara nodded, seeming to take Lena at her word, and continued eating. 

After a while she spoke again. “If you come back to the baths, there’s a pool that will heal those.”

When Kara stopped eating there was a single carton of various leftovers remaining that Lena put in the fridge.

“That was really great, Lena. You’re the best,” Kara said and went to hug her. Lena relaxed into the hug and enjoyed the warmth of Kara’s body until she stepped away, looking distant again. “I guess I better go,” Kara said, looking out the window then going to pick her jeans up off the floor. 

Lena tried to hide her disappointment as she watched the woman putting her pants on and then shoving her hands into the front pockets and looking uncomfortable. “Hey, I hate to ask, especially after you bought all that food and everything …” Kara was staring hard at the floor with her shoulders pulled up around her ears and her elbows tucked in. “Um …” Kara looked over at the desk.

Lena frowned with confusion, waiting for Kara to ask what she wanted to ask. Then she got it.

“Oh. Of course,” she said and went to get her wallet from her purse. She heard the change in tone in her own voice, and she hated it. It sounded like Lillian. As she flipped through the bills she could hear Kara shuffle behind her. She removed a generous amount and folded it in her hand. She had already discerned that it must be hard for Kara to get along. She had to eat, she had to pay rent. Of course she would want to get paid for what she could.

“Sorry,” Kara muttered when Lena turned back to her. 

Lena smiled and sounded much warmer this time. “It’s all right. It was worth it. You’re very good.”

Kara took the folded bills and realized at once how much it must be. She almost told Lena it was too much. She went as far as lifting her hand to give it back before she thought better of it. 

“Thanks,” she said, tucking the paper into her front pocket. She couldn’t help but notice the sadness behind Lena’s eyes. “Hey,” she said, reaching out for Lena, touching her shoulder, pulling her into her arms. She could feel the difference in how Lena held her body, stiff and awkward now. “This wasn’t about …” No. She didn’t want to lie. “This wasn’t just about that,” Kara told her. “I really like you, Lena. You’re special. You’re, like, real.” Kara felt some of the tension ease out of the woman.

Lena told herself she was a fool to want to believe Kara. But what could it hurt, letting herself pretend a little longer. Pretend that someone would want her for more than a day.

“You could stay,” Lena told her, cursing herself for asking for another wound. “You know, sleep here. If you want,” she whispered. She huffed out a little laugh. “There’s plenty of cereal.”

Kara smiled into the top of her head. “Yeah?” Lena nodded. “Ok. Cool.”

They undressed and climbed back into bed, Lena immediately snuggling up against the warm alien.

“Lena?” Kara asked, her voice already heavy with oncoming sleep.

“Hmmm?”

“I haven’t not felt hungry in a long time.” Her voice cracked a little. She just wanted Lena to understand how much it meant. Lena just squeezed her tight in response.  
_____

Lena’s alarm sounded at six, and Kara groaned in complaint until she turned it off. They got up and showered together. Lena drank coffee while Kara ate two more bowls of cereal. 

Lena was putting on her makeup and had just unsheathed a lipstick when she felt a tug at her sleeve.

“Hey, before you put that on, let me say goodbye,” Kara said. She was back in her leather jacket and sunglasses, hair tousled, looking like a fallen angel who fucked like a goddess. “I gotta go home before Alex blows her stack again.”

Lena set the metal cylinder down and stood to face the alien. She was hit with a wash of sadness that she tried not to show, but she wasn’t very successful. She stepped into Kara’s arms, sliding her own under the jacket and around Kara’s waist.

Kara kissed her until she couldn’t help but feel better. 

“It’s okay,” Kara whispered into her ear as she stroked the crown of Lena’s head. “You’re gonna be fine,” she said, as if she knew all the fears that Lena constantly fought to push down and keep contained. Lena nodded her head. 

She was going to be fine. She had had the night of her life, and now she was going to go to work. She was going to run the lineup of tests she had planned for the day and have lunch with Jess and Gayle like usual, and she wasn’t going to get hung up over Kara. At all. She sniffed and straightened with resolve.

“Let me get the elevator for you,” she said and started to turn towards the bay door.

“That’s ok,” Kara said, stopping her by taking her hand and tugging her toward the fire escape window.

“That’s not really an exit,” Lena said, laughing. “The ladder at the bottom doesn’t go down.”

Kara unlocked the sash and the extra bolts. She lifted the window fully open, but before she stepped out she kissed Lena sweetly one more time.

“That’s ok,” she said. “I’m not going down.”

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks so much for reading. It was really nice to write a complete work again, and I poured a lot of heart into this. I was 15 at the end of the '70s. Please tell me what you think and let me know if you also remember the '70s. Comments are the grooviest.
> 
> If you don't recognize it, the song is Carole King's "Will You Love Me Tomorrow?"  
> Also, if you want a soundtrack to Kara's day to day life, try "Everybody's Talkin'" by Harry Nilsson. 
> 
> If I expand this story, I'll probably do it as a series rather than additional chapters.


End file.
